Creating Community Responsibility for Child Protection: Possibilities and Challenges

VOL. 19 / NO. 2 / FALL 2009 67

Creating Community Responsibility for Child Protection: Possibilities and Challenges

Deborah Daro and Kenneth A. Dodge

Summary Deborah Daro and Kenneth Dodge observe that efforts to prevent child abuse have historically focused on directly improving the skills of parents who are at risk for or engaged in maltreat- ment. But, as experts increasingly recognize that negative forces within a community can over- whelm even well-intentioned parents, attention is shifting toward creating environments that facilitate a parent’s ability to do the right thing. The most sophisticated and widely used com- munity prevention programs, say Daro and Dodge, emphasize the reciprocal interplay between individual-family behavior and broader neighborhood, community, and cultural contexts.

The authors examine five different community prevention efforts, summarizing for each both the theory of change and the empirical evidence concerning its efficacy. Each program aims to enhance community capacity by expanding formal and informal resources and establishing a normative cultural context capable of fostering collective responsibility for positive child development.

Over the past ten years, researchers have explored how neighborhoods influence child devel- opment and support parenting. Scholars are still searching for agreement on the most salient contextual factors and on how to manipulate these factors to increase the likelihood parents will seek out, find, and effectively use necessary and appropriate support.

The current evidence base for community child abuse prevention, observe Daro and Dodge, offers both encouragement and reason for caution. Although theory and empirical research sug- gest that intervention at the neighborhood level is likely to prevent child maltreatment, design- ing and implementing a high-quality, multifaceted community prevention initiative is expensive. Policy makers must consider the trade-offs in investing in strategies to alter community context and those that expand services for known high-risk individuals. The authors conclude that if the concept of community prevention is to move beyond the isolated examples examined in their article, additional conceptual and empirical work is needed to garner support from public institutions, community-based stakeholders, and local residents.

www.futureofchildren.org

Deborah Daro is associate professor and research fellow at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Kenneth A. Dodge is director of the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University.

68 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN

Deborah Daro and Kenneth A. Dodge

Depending on their composi-tion and quality, neighbor-hoods can either foster children’s healthy devel-opment or place them at significant risk for physical, psychological, or developmental harm. The National Survey on Children’s Health estimates that almost 75 percent of the nation’s children live in neigh- borhoods that their parents describe as highly or moderately supportive, while the balance live in neighborhoods judged by their parents to have either moderately low (20 percent) or very low support (6 percent).1 Although some of this variation can be attributed to self- selection (that is, economic conditions and available options may direct high-risk families into neighborhoods that are less supportive), empirical studies indicate that neighbor- hoods do have an effect on family and child behaviors and outcomes, including parenting behaviors.2

Child abuse prevention efforts have histori- cally focused on developing and disseminating interventions that target individual parents.3 Early work in the field placed primary emphasis on identifying parents at risk for or engaged in abusive or neglectful behaviors. Once identified, these parents would be provided with knowledge, skill-building opportunities, and assistance to overcome their personal limitations. Such strategies were considered the most direct and efficient path to preventing maltreatment. More recently, however, attention has shifted from directly improving the skills of parents to creating environments that facilitate a parent’s ability to do the right thing. It is increasingly recognized that environmental forces can overwhelm even well-intended parents, that communities can support parents in their role, and that public expenditures might be most cost-beneficial if directed towardDiscuss two things about the intersection of youth development and community support. Also, use the following articles to support your ideas.

The assignment should be 2 pages and in APA format